School Swimming lessons
All Dolphins are taught to National Curriculum level and well beyond
Dolphins do not offer the National Curriculum as these awards are restricted to state schools only.
Private Schools and Academies are not required to provide any swimming tuition
National Curriculum in England: physical education programmes of study
Published 11 September 2013
Swimming and water safety:
All schools must provide swimming instruction either in key stage 1 or key stage 2.
In particular, pupils should be taught to:
- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
- use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
- perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
however there are no specific learning outcomes
Ofsted does not check that schools are meeting each statutory requirement individually and less than 10% of Ofsted school reports include the words "swim" or "swimming"
So how do Swim Schools test this in the absence of a detailed specification for the National Curriculum award?
- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
this is straightforward for a Swimming Teacher to assess.
- use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]
again quite straightforward for a Swimming Teacher to assess, but how far is reasonable on each stroke?
- perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
But what is a reasonable requirement for this? Most accidents happen when children are fully clothed - so swimming with clothes on - maybe 10 metres? maybe without goggles? maybe Water Safety Awards (including the questions)? Maybe add in 25 metres of Lifesaving backstroke?